Autumn Leaves
by Esmara
Summary: A human child was spotted in Halloween, and everyone is panicking. Jack and Sally are on the case to find the strange child, and why she's in Halloween at all - with surprising answers. JackxSally, hinted OCxOC.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Backpack

"Everybody calm down!" it was useless; whispers and panicked buzzes blanketed the crowd as the townspeople turned to each other and whispered their wild worries. This had to stop soon, or they'd all be screaming for torches and pitchforks. The tall, suited figure made a noise like clearing his throat. "Please be quiet!" Still no obedience came from the crowd, and he finally clenched his teeth, taking the megaphone from the little shelf inside the podium. "EVERYBODY STOP!" He shouted, and every face, vampire witch or nightmare clown, turned to face the tall skeleton.

"Thank you," Sally said with a small smile, and looked at Jack, who sighed and put the megaphone back down.

"I know everybody's worried, but let's not panic about this," Jack began, stepping away from behind the podium and gesturing to various articles on a table next to him. "Now, we have collected evidence from where the most recent sighting was, and it does look very much like a human child has gotten into Halloween." The voices began to pick up, but stopped with a wave of his hand. "Now, the mayor and I are looking into the matter, but I must remind you all that we should be careful right now. There is a chance the child has already found the way back into the human world, and if that has happened we can hide the door. However," he picked up the small stuffed cat off the table and held it for them to see, "we must also remember that if we do see the child, the odds are we're going to scare her off. Remember, humans don't know that we want to avoid their attention. They – the ones that still believe – fear us infinitely more than we fear them."

"Which is why," Sally added, "we're asking that if any of you see the child, then try not to scare her. A child who trusts us is more likely to keep Halloween a secret than one who doesn't. If you see the human, keep quiet, don't make any sudden noises or movements, and try to find Jack as soon as you can without startling the child."

"Sally and I will try to figure out how the child came to Halloween, and why," Jack finished, setting the doll down and lifting up a small journal, "with this, and these." He gestured to the doll, backpack, flashlight and lunchbox. "No doubt the human child will start looking for them soon, so the place she was found will be monitored by the werewolves in case the human returns for these." There was relieved murmuring now, and the crowd began to file out of the town hall and disperse, retuning to preparing for Halloween Night – three months away.

"Jack," the skeleton looked at Sally, who took his free hand. "Do you really this will work? The poor thing could have wandered deep into the forest or died of fright by now."

"If that was the case, we'd have an extra ghost running around," Jack responded, turning back to the table and opening the backpack, lifting up one of the several dozen greeting cards he'd found stuffed into a secret pocket on the inside of the ragged red bag that had been filled with a menagerie of knickknacks – yo-yos and a Slinky, a small comic book about a strange boy named Lio, newspaper clippings of funny ads and comics, and a lumpy clay pumpkin strung on a piece of green string, all carefully packed along with the clothes and toothbrush. Jack opened the card with WELCOME BACK printed on it in big letters, and skimmed through the pre-typed greeting from "Graywood Home for the Youth", which had "Clarissa" scribbled in cursive in the blanks. He frowned. "You know Sally, I've been looking at all of these welcome home cards, and I've already found five different names written on them. But they're all talking about the same girl." He closed it, and looked at the back. "And this is the fifth date I've found. How many times can a child come back to the same…" he looked at the title again, "….orphanage, I'm guessing?"

"I don't know," Sally responded, reaching over and lifting another card from the same address. This one was scribbled in childlike writing and signed "Rosita". "This one says "Autumn" in it."

"I think that's her real name," Jack opened another pre-typed card – "Jessica" this time. "It's the only one the cards that weren't fill-in-the-blank used, and how she signs her journal entries." He sighed, and put the cards back in the backpack. "Why in the world would a little girl be sent back to the same place again and again? I haven't found anything useful in the journal yet – it's full of little stories and recipes torn out of magazines and old books." Jack opened the journal to one such page – a clipping of a cupcake recipe, the paper so old he could smell the dust stuck to it.

"Keep looking," Sally said, picking up a photo showing a simple, large building with the name of the orphanage carefully painted on the sign, "We'll figure something out."

"I hope so." Jack turned a page – finally, an actual entry, written in print taken right out from a child's handwriting book, very neat and very simple. "Ah, here we go. This is dated from about a week ago. Hm… Sally, look." She walked over and looked at the page. "Let's see… "I packed everything I need, so I'm going to leave tonight. I heard Mr. and Mrs. Smith talking downstairs about bringing me back to Graywood. I've been here two weeks already, so I was waiting for it. I already got the Welcome Home card in the mail. They got the name on it wrong, or double wrong. They call me Jessie, not Jessica. But I still like my name, Autumn." Why in the world would they want to send her…" Jack trailed off, reading more of the simplistic writing. "She wrote one more thing."

"What is it?"

Jack looked at the small scribble beneath her signature. "I don't want to be alone anymore."

* * *

_Okay, first, I have had this story in my head for YEARS and am so glad to put out chapter 1. Second, I know I should be working on Tangled Puppeteer, but the spark just isn't with me on that one write now, and anything I try will probably just feel forced. Third, the "lumpy orange pumpkin on a piece of green string" was a legit gift from my dear friend SJ Rivera. Thankies!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Short chapter is short. Longer ones to come_!

* * *

Chapter 2: Doll

It was an old, ragged thing, with seams slightly open and fur patchy and knotted. Turning the little cat doll over, Sally was met with only more rips and faded patches, and some where the fur had fallen out completely. She frowned, holding the tiny thing closer to her face. _Why would a human girl want a mangy thing like this?_

"Careful!" Sally stepped back, just in time to avoid being hit by the Mayor's car. She sighed, and shook her head. _I've been looking at this doll for a week… _Sally crossed the street, and continued on down the road, returning her attention to the little cat. _You must have something you can tell me…_

She wandered into the graveyard, eventually sitting down. She turned the doll over again – one eye missing and covered in tape, nose half-broken, three whiskers gone from the right side. The head must have been weighted, because it lolled about on the stuffed body of the thing. Around her, she could hear a soft breeze toss crunchy leaves in the air, the whistle of wind through the branches, the pitter-patter of somebody approachi-

Sally looked up, and the sound of small footsteps stopped. She looked over her shoulder.

"Hello?" There was the sound of leaves crunching, like somebody standing in them had jumped in surprise. "…Hello?" No reply. Sally looked around, and spotted one of the larger gravestones, a set of white fingers peeking over the edge. Sally stood up. "Who's there?" The fingers retreated as she stepped forward, and Sally stopped, waiting. Nothing else happened.

She took another step, and a figure darted from behind the gravestone through the gates. Sally ran after the child, whose face and body were hidden by the baggy pants and large hooded sweater she wore. The kid was halfway down the path by the time Sally had gotten up and out of the graveyard, and she could only watch as who she could only guess was Autumn unwittingly made a beeline for the tree house bordering the edge of the woods outside of town.

Oogie Boogie's domain.

"Uh oh…" Sally turned and ran into town. "Somebody help me find Jack!"


	3. Chapter 3

_Olivia belongs to the amazing SJ Rivera. Trigger belongs to me._

* * *

Chapter 3: Venom

"Stupidest thing I ever heard," Trigger crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at his fellow trick-or-treaters, "A human child getting into Halloween and not giving herself away by screaming?" He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over the top of his head, watching the other three glance up at the ornamental fangs that hung over the top of his "cobra head". "You're making it up."

"I'm not!" Lock stepped forward, eyes shooting daggers at the pale boy. Trigger leaned forward.

"Really, now?" Lock stepped back, still glaring but clearly trying not to shake at the quiet threat in the 13-year-old's voice.

"Jack said so," Barrel added with a grin, "a human girl was spotted near Jack's pumpkin patch, and she ran off. He's asking everyone to look for her!"

"Hm…" Trigger leaned against the wall, rolling the idea around in his head. _A human girl in Halloween… if she spread rumor of it to anyone else, there'd be chaos. But… _he felt a smile spread across his face, _but if we found her first… who's to say we can't?_

"I bet she has big, _ugly _blue eyes like a dumb doll!" Shock pulled him out of his thoughts, and he glared at the three eternal-youngers.

"And _little yellow curls!_" Barrel added, and the other two cringed before bursting out laughing.

"Hey," they all looked at Trigger, "I just had a good idea." He pushed himself off the wall and walked over, pulling his hood back and looking at them so they could all see the glint in his slit-pupils. "Why don't we make a race out of this? Jack wants that girl found, fast. We're all technically kids like she is, so she won't be as scared of us. By that logic, we should have an easier time getting close to her. So, whoever manages to find her and bring her back first wins."

"We'll need a big net!" Barrel said, and Trigger had to stop himself from burying his face in his hand.

"No, no," he shook his head, "No nets, no cages, no locks. That's what I mean – she's run away because she's scared of the others. We already look a bit like her, so what I'm saying is that she won't run away, so there's no need to get a giant net." They stared at him in confusion. "Don't you get it? _Make friends with her. _If we can earn her trust, she'll probably go along with what we say is a good idea. What do you think, Olivia?"

The girl made out of a burlap sack looked up, orange "hair" falling in front of one eye. "It sounds like you may be on to something. Too bad Oogie won't let me join," she gestured to her chains, "Or else I'd probably win." She smiled. "Still, I'd like to meet her. Humans are supposed to be very strange, aren't they?"

"Then it's settled," Trigger said with a nod, "We'll make this a contest. And the winner-"

"Can lead her to Oogie Boogie!" Shock piped up, and Trigger turned to her.

"That's not what I-"

"Yeah!" Lock and Barrel cheered in agreement. "Let's start now!" Before he could do anything, the three had darted out of the tree house, leaving him standing there with the teenager who was trying not to laugh.

"…That's not what I was gonna say," Trigger finished, and glared at Olivia. "Not funny."

"Is so," she snickered. "So, you gonna go looking or not?"

"I am," he responded, pulling his hood up. "Let's see which one of them messes this up first." He stopped for a moment, frowning. He flickered his tongue out of his mouth.

"What are you doing?" Olivia slightly frowned at him.

"…Weird…" he shook his head, "I thought I smelled... never mind." He walked towards the ladder, and climbed down, ignoring the tiny creaking sounds of something moving on the roof.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Sentence

"Maretta," the witch looked up from her cauldron as the Pumpkin King walked through the old doorway. "Do you have it yet?"

"Right here, your Highness," she grumbled, striding over to a shelf and plucking a vial of orange goo from among them. "I still say this is a bit excessive in terms of punishment."

"Being required to repay for stealing with one potion every year is hardly "excessive", Maretta," Jack said, opening the bottle and sniffing its contents. "Especially considering that whatever you made with what you stole could either be running loose in the forest or dead without a ghost." He put the cork back in the opening of the bottle. "I don't know which is worse, to be honest."

"It was a pumpkin!" Maretta returned to the cauldron. "This town has enough pumpkins. On more or less makes little difference."

"It was a jack-o-lantern," Jack corrected, "the biggest one we ever would have had, if I'd managed to give it a mouth and a candle before you used it to create your… familiar?" He walked over to the book on a nearby table, and opened it. "And then you went and abandoned what you made!"

"It was a useless blob of white flesh and black hair. There was nothing I could do with it." Maretta shrugged as Jack read the recipe on the only page with a bookmark. "One jack-o-lantern wasted on what could have been great, if I'd gotten a cat hair instead of… whatever I did get from that hairbrush."

"A single cat hair from a black cat born in the Uncanny Valley," Jack read aloud from the page, "three spiders that have never bitten, tears of a frightened child, five pages from a tome of ancient lore," he glared at Maretta, "Which I still want back, by the way… and the outer shell of the largest pumpkin grown the night before Halloween, eyes cut out." He shut the book. "All of that effort, and you have no idea where this creature is."

"Dead," Maretta responded, "I'd bet my cauldron on it." She looked at Jack, who was inspecting the bottle. "Why do you need a tracking potion, anyway? Do you intend to find it yourself?"

"I will," Jack said, "but not today."

"Why do you care to find it? Do you consider the thing your property?"

"I consider whatever you made to be my _responsibility, _seeing as how I unwittingly provided the main ingredient. This, however," he held up the bottle, "is to give me a clue where the girl running around Halloween has gotten off to. Nobody seems able to approach her before she runs off… for an 11-year-old, she's very quick."

"What makes you say she's 11?" Maretta put another eyeball into the cauldron – was that five yet, or four?

"I did the math," Jack responded, "from all of the papers. The first card was a congratulations from 10 years ago on being adopted, and it said she was almost 1 at the time. Another says she was 6 when she came back, the third and fourth she was 9, and the most recent one was a few weeks ago." He shook his head. "But what bothers me is that none of the cards suggest she actually did anything to deserve it. I don't understand..."

"Life's not fair for humans, what's so hard to understand about that?" Maretta stirred the brew. "Now, if there isn't anything else…"

"I'm done," Jack said, and walked out, adding at the door "but I'll expect another potion next year."

"And again until I find the monster, I know," Maretta responded, "I know." He walked out, leaving Maretta to her work. _How hard can finding a monster be? After all, it's not hard to miss during most seasons – the little worm reeked of pumpkin._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Termites

Olivia leaned back so she was relaxing against wall, eyes to the ceiling and all the cracks in it. The creaking had been going on for about twenty minutes as whatever was up there scurried about, occasionally peaking in with a large orange eye, spotting Olivia looking back, and quickly retreating from sight. She spotted the gazing eye again, and waved, getting a small jump of surprise in response.

Olivia smiled in amusement, and turned her attention to another part of the roof. Termites had been gnawing away at it, and it looked weak. A little too weak…

"Careful!" Olivia called as she heard the footsteps unknowingly head over to the weak spot. Almost immediately the wood caved under the foot, and the figure yelped in surprise before grabbing onto a metal pipe keeping nearby rooftop up as the rotted planks crumbled underfoot. Olivia covered her face as sawdust and wood came crumbling down, and waited a moment before looking up again.

"Sorry…" the small figure clinging to the pipe said, looking down at Olivia. "Are you okay?"

"Am _I_ okay?" Olivia laughed. "You could have died if you'd hit your head on that, and "Are you okay" is the first thing you ask? I'm fine." She folded her arms together. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Y-yeah…" the child started wriggling her legs up and down, arms trying to pull upwards, getting halfway there, giving in and leaving her where she'd started. "I'm fine, just give me a second…"

"Let go," Olivia stepped under her, "I'll catch you." The girl looked at her, orange eyes wide with alarm. In fact, they were the only thing Olivia could see from under her hood. "I promise." Olivia held her hands out. The little girl swallowed.

"…Okay." She let go, and landed in Olivia's hands before the teenager set her down.

"That wasn't too hard, was it?" Olivia knelt down and started to pull her hood back, but she reached up and clung to the edges of it.

"Sorry, I don't like people looking at me…" Olivia nodded.

"It's alright." She let go of the hood. The girl looked up at Olivia, and gave a small, almost invisible smile. "What's your name?"

"I'm Autumn," she responded.

"Autumn what?"

"Nothing. Just Autumn." The little girl looked at her for a moment. "What's your name?"

"Olivia. It's nice to meet you, Autumn." She held a large, misshapen hand out to Autumn, who took it with her own – it was much bigger than it looked hidden inside her baggy sleeve.

"It's nice to meet you too, Olivia." The smile beneath the hood widened a bit, but disappeared as the tree shook.

"Kid!" Autumn scrambled on top of a table as the voice bellowed from below, "What's that racket?!"

"Nothing. Nothing, NOTHING," Olivia shouted, mumbling "Tra-la-la," under her breath. "I DROPPED A SKILLET IS ALL!"

"Be quiet, I need my sleep!" The ground rumbled again, and if she could have rolled her button eye, she would have. Olivia waited until she could feel the softest rumble of Oogie Boogie snoring before turning to Autumn, who was staring down with eyes the size of saucers.

"Wh-wha…" She whispered.

"My boss, Oogie Boogie," Olivia said, holding up her chain for Autumn to see. She looked at it with a furrowed brow. "You'd better go before he wakes up and decides to add you to his snake and spider stew." She nodded, and stepped down, walking to the ladder.

"Thank you for being so nice," she whispered.

"Hey, before you go," Olivia leaned over the side as Autumn descended, "are you that human girl I heard about?" She nodded, and Olivia smiled. "Cool. Now get out before you get caught!"

"Thanks," Autumn smiled, and climbed down, looking up one more time when she'd reached the bottom and waving before she ran off.

_Looks like I win, _Olivia thought with a smile.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Spiders

Water soaked up into her socks as Autumn scrambled towards the closest thing to shelter she could find – the spiraling hill overlooking the graveyard, that formed a thin shade with its underside, water from the top sliding down and into its curl. Her hood had fallen off during her sprint, and long strands of stringy black hair clung to her face and shoulders. Autumn slipped and fell face first in the mud, and pulled herself halfway up before crawling under the hill and sighing in relief. _I can hide here until the rain stops…_

"What are you doing all by yourself, dear?" She looked up with a start, and glanced around before finding the speaker gazing at her with eight red eyes – a big, pitch-black spider with long and spindly legs, and glistening fangs. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm fine," Autumn pulled her rain-soaked sweatshirt over her head and twisted the water out, "I'll just wait until the rain stops." She glanced behind the spider. "And on the bright side, lots of rain means lots of puddles to splash in, doesn't it?" The water was starting to pull the curve of the hill downward, and Autumn held her hand out and let the spider crawl onto her oversized hand before it could land in the water.

"I don't like puddles very much," the spider responded, crawling up her thick wrist to her tiny shoulder, "they're hard to walk, and water gets rid of the glue in my webs."

"I guess that's true," Autumn said, still looking out to the rain. She was sure her curtains of hair were hiding her face well enough, and left the sweatshirt in her lap. She giggled as the black widow climbed up her neck and onto the top of her head, before beginning to spin a web on the underside of the hill. "But without water, what can anyone drink? Everything needs water to live."

"Not the dead," the spider responded, "not ghosts and ghouls. Werewolves, yes, but not vampires or zombies."

"But people need water," Autumn looked up at the spider. "And don't vampires drink blood?"

"…That's true," the spider kept working, "I never thought of it that way before."

"…" Autumn looked back at the graveyard. "…Who's Jack?"

"Hm?"

"I've heard that name a lot. Jack and Sally, Sally and Jack. Who are Jack and Sally?"

"Oh, you don't know?" The spider looked down at her. "They're the King and Queen of Halloween, our kind leaders."

"So… why are they looking for me?"

"Well, you see-" the spider stopped, and Autumn looked to where it was facing – a boy in a dark red hoodie, soaked to the bone. He was staring at Autumn.

"…looks like I'm not as clever about this hiding place as I thought."


	7. Chapter 7

_Boy howdy, seven chapters in less than four days? I'm on a roll here._

_Please let me know what you like about this so far, and happy reading!_

* * *

Chapter 7: Hoodies

Trigger had seen _The Ring _once on a dare, and the first thing he thought the human girl looked like was the ghost's little sister in an orange T-shirt and slacks. He could barely see any of her face behind her waist-length black hair – in fact, the only things he _could _completely see were a pair of large orange eyes, staring at him with a look that suggested a mix of surprise and curiosity. Her arms were paper-white and looked misshapen, like a cheap doll's, with long fingers on large hands that got narrower at the elbow, and even thinner at the shoulder, so that it shouldn't have made sense for her body to be able to support them. He stared at them in confusion – seriously, how did those things stay _on? _– but then the girl spoke.

"I didn't know there were any other kids here." She had scooted to the side, and patted the ground next to her. Trigger ducked under the hill and sat down, pulling his knees up to his chest. "I'm Autumn."

"I'm Trigger." He glanced around. "Who were you talking to?" She pointed up, and he saw a large spider making its web. He looked at her again. "The spider?" She smiled behind her hair and nodded. "But spiders can't talk."

"Oh right," she responded, "most people can't hear them, can they? I think I might just have really good ears or something, but I can hear them talk." She smiled. "Can you hear anything most people can't?" She looked up at his hoodie. "…Snakes, maybe?"

Trigger half-smiled back, and gave a small nod. "Yeah," he gestured to the snake-scale pattern, "I can talk to snakes. I'm teaching myself to be a sorcerer. Then I'll be able to turn into one." Her eyes widened.

"Turn into a snake? _Cool." _She grinned, and he could see tiny, glinting fangs where her canines should have been, "Maybe I can teach myself how to be a spider somehow!" She was sitting up straighter now, and he could see a bit of her face – ghostly skin, just like her hands.

"How'd you get here, Autumn?" Trigger mentally thwacked himself for not wondering about it earlier. "Last I checked, the door here is really well-hidden. Most people shouldn't be able to see it."

"Neither did I," Autumn responded. "I was walking towards the town and I started running when I thought I heard a crow."

"You're scared of crows?"

"They're creepy! Anyway, I just ran and ran, and then I looked behind me while I was running, and I guess I should have paid more attention because I ran right into a wide-open hole in a tree and fell."

"You _fell?_"

"Yeah, for a long time. When I stopped falling, I got up, and kept walking until I got here. I guess I fell through the door by mistake." She shrugged. "There are monsters instead of people, but I don't think it's too different from Graywood."Trigger furrowed his brow.

"How in the world can a human town and Halloween not be "too different" from each other?!"

"All of the grown-ups are afraid of me."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Club

"Let the ladder down!" Olivia didn't look up from the old book she was reading, and kicked the newly-added rope ladder backwards, sending it through the small door in the floor. "I won the contest!" She heard Trigger pull himself up, followed by…

"Oh, Olivia!" She looked up as Autumn ran over and hugged her legs. Her hoodie, dripping wet from the rain earlier that day, was wrapped around her waist like a belt, and little drops of water sprinkled down the tips of her hair. "It's good to see you again!"

"Hey Autumn," Olivia smiled. "You're still here? It's already been a week." Autumn nodded, and let go, rubbing the back of her head.

"I can't find the exit…" she giggled sheepishly. Trigger walked over, frowning.

"You know her?" He pointed at Autumn, giving Olivia a confused look. Olivia grinned.

"She dropped in about a week ago, which means I already won. Which reminds me," she looked at Autumn, "what in the world have you been _eating _for the past week? Humans need to eat a lot, don't they?"

"Oh," Autumn shrugged, "I made do. There are some apple trees in the forest," she pointed out the window, "so I just ate a lot of those."

"Eugh, those apples are always full of worms." Trigger made a disgusted face. "You _ate _them?"

"I don't mind the worms too much," Autumn shrugged, "I just pull them out when I find them."

"And if you bite into one?" Olivia leaned against the table, smirking. Autumn gave a shrug and a smile in response, and Trigger blanched. Olivia laughed, but felt a bit of uneasiness at the thought of it. An eleven year old girl… eating _worms… _it just didn't feel right. "You… you are _human, _aren't you?"

"Nobody's told me otherwise." She crossed her arms, and the tree house suddenly rumbled, too quiet to be Oogie but too big to be outside. "Sorry, that was my stomach."

"Maybe you should talk to Jack," Olivia frowned. "If that's all you're eating… I mean, even Trigger lives off of more than just apples, and he hates anything that isn't..."

"Alive," Trigger finished. "Mice, rats, small birds, whatever I can catch and swallow. It's all part of snake magic."

"But… birds have beaks…" Autumn frowned. "How would you keep them from cutting up your throat?"

"You don't want to know," Olivia and Trigger said in unison.

"But really," Olivia patted her head, "I know you think grown-ups don't like you – and seeing as how you don't like being looked at, I think I can guess why – but Jack's in charge for a reason. Everyone likes him, even the other kids up here. Even _Trigger," _she pointed at the boy, who scowled, "likes him. And he hates everybody."

"I do _not _hate everybody," Trigger cut in, "I just don't tolerate stupidity. Which, sadly, I am surrounded by." Olivia smirked.

"…" Autumn was facing the ground, arms folded. "Are you sure? The others really didn't seem to like having a human like me in Halloween at all." She looked up. "And…Jack sort of scares me…"

"I'll take you to him," Trigger cut in, and Olivia stared in disbelief. "The alternatives are wandering around the woods and possibly bumping into one of the monsters that _isn't _so nice as the ones in town in order to find the door, or you stay here. And I don't like either one." Autumn frowned. "What I mean is, there's a very good chance you could get _eaten. _Oogie Boogie isn't exactly picky about what he cooks for dinner – a little human girl would probably be quite appetizing."

"…Okay," Autumn nodded, "I'll go see Jack then. Thank you, Trigger." Trigger lifted the trap door and dropped the ladder.

"Yeah, yeah," Trigger muttered, "just don't break the ladder on the way down." She scaled down quickly, jumping to the ground with a small _thump. _Trigger began to follow suit, but looked at Olivia, who was giving a grin to make the Cheshire Cat jealous. "Shut up." He climbed down.

"I didn't say a word."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Orange

Jack frowned, turning the page in the little journal to the photo he'd finally found. It was so strange – all of the kids were leaning away from the one he guessed was Autumn, who had the same purple hoodie Sally had described to him when she'd seen the girl the week before. It cast a shadow over the front of her head, save her eyes, and made it impossible to guess anything about her face. Jack sighed, and turned back to the page he'd been reading.

Since the storm that morning, the potion had been rendered useless – the orange smog it created when opened, which should had tracked her down and create a sort of moving path to her, had been washed away by the rain before it could reach the girl. His mind switched between worrying about the girl and worrying _for her – _wondering if she was already home and exposing everything, fearing she might have caught her death of cold in the rain. He tapped his skull with a long, bony finger as he read through the page again – a list of spiders and their scientific names, with little notes such as "this kind can be mean" or "this one's my favorite", written in lettering he was certain was supposed to look like the lines in a web. Jack flipped two pages, and stopped.

_Ah-ha! _He smiled at the first sign of a normal journal entry in pages. "Let's see now…" it was a description of her first day back after the fourth set of parents had brought her back – reading the card, unpacking, greeting "Rosita" – the girl who'd written her own welcome home cards for Autumn – and walking to lunch. He stopped once a particular passage caught his attention.

_The ladies at the front didn't seem upset to see me, _it read, _but they didn't look happy, either. Ms. Robins gave me a pat on the head, but she wouldn't look at me, even though I smiled at her._

_ I'm staying with another kid this time, instead of by myself or with Rosita. They said she's got the flu, and they don't want me to catch it from her. The other kid is a bigger girl, I think she's a year older than me. She didn't tell me her name when I asked. I think she was in a hurry since she left the room so quickly. Or maybe she was just scared of me._

_ I'm sitting in my room now, eating a cookie the grown-ups gave me. They packed me some soup and a piece of pumpkin bread, but I only ate the soup. Pumpkin makes me queasy. It's funny, I barely even remember their names, even though they left me here a couple of hours ago. I think they were Mr. and Mrs. Johnson or something like that. Oh well, I guess that's not too bad. I could tell they were scared of me, too._

_ There's a spider in here, up in the corner. He isn't talking, though. I think he might be dead. It's raining outside. I sorta want to run outside in the rain, splash in some puddles. That could be fun. Okay, I think I'm done writing now._

Jack looked at the signature and frowned – it was smudged. He touched the paper, and found it slightly different in texture, more bumpy and less flat, like it had gotten a drop of water on it. He sighed, and closed the journal.

"Still nothing explaining how she got here…" he turned to Zero, who'd brought in a letter. "What's this?" He opened it, and frowned. "Maretta… uh-oh." He closed it with a frown. "I'll be right back, Zero. Maretta needs to see me about something important." He stood, and walked to the door. "Sally, I'll be right back!"

"Be careful!" Came the response from upstairs, and Jack smiled.

"I will! I love you!" He called back up. Sally had walked to the stairs, and smiled.

"I love you too, Jack." They smiled again at each other, and Jack walked out.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Tracks

"What _is _that?" Maretta looked at Jack, who was frowning at the thing before them, which twisted and writhed in its chains before them, gnashing its fangs with fury.

"A counterpart," Maretta responded, "to what I made with the pumpkin shell. That dirty orange color it has is because I made this out of the seeds and innards I took, which you'd tried to throw away. Pumpkin insides are just valuable as the outsides." The creature tried to lunge at her, but she stepped back. "It's just woken up."

"Woken up?" The thing growled. "Why?"

"That's why I had that letter delivered as fast as the bat could fly," Maretta frowned at the writhing creature when it lunged at them again. "It went to sleep over ten years ago, when I threw out my failed familiar. I assume it's because they are essentially two parts of a whole – like human twins, only instead of being completely identical they are complete opposites. Colorful in contrast to black and white, impulsive to contemplative, driven by instinct as opposed to reason and intelligence. I believe it has sensed its other half, and is trying to break free in order to track it down."

"Sensed its-" Jack turned to Maretta, who aw fury burn in his sockets. "You said the thing you made was dead!"

"I will not give you my cauldron," Maretta looked back at the creature, "but I will admit that I was wrong. Whatever that little blob grew into, it's come back to Halloween and is probably close by." She looked at Jack. "That thing is everything that the creature you see before you isn't – it's smart, capable of understanding language and using it, probably a strategic thinker, logical and observant. It probably knows everything it wants to by now, and is planning something – don't ask me what." The creature lunged again, chains clanging and jingling, stretching from the strain. "What's odd is the fact that it managed to find its way back – I hid the door when I took it away from Halloween and left it in the snow in one of the other worlds. Wherever it ended up must be a wasteland by now."

A link on one of the chains broke.

"You _left _it in a different world?!" Jack was scowling now. "All of those other holidays, or even the human world, and you _left _it, uncontained?! Somebody probably took it in and took care of it, and got killed as a thank-you! Why couldn't you just tell me what you'd done?! I could have fixed this years ago!"

"You would have raised it yourself," Maretta walked to the door. "It looked so weak and helpless… I thought the snow would be enough to kill the thing." She shook her head. "You know, all of these "coulds",and in this entire conversation the alternative has never come up."

"What alternative?" Jack walked towards her. The chains broke, and the beast dashed forward, knocking them both down as it dashed out the door and out of sight.

"There it goes," Maretta sighed as she stood up, "so much for tracking. It'll be either a fight to the death or a team-up now. Nothing like a bit of tension between siblings, hm?"

"Maretta," Jack looked at her, "what is the alternative? What else _could _your creation be up to?"

"Well, I did some poking around," Maretta stood, "And I found the brush I used to get the hair from a cat born in Uncanny Valley. Now, that was supposed to be the deciding factor in what the thing looked like, which is why I think it went bad. But, seeing as how it lives, I think there's another possibility, considering where the hair actually came from."

"What? What is it?" Jack stepped forward, eye sockets somehow expressing infinitely more confusion, worry, and anger than his voice implied.

"I believe it may have convinced itself that it's the same species as the hair."

"And what species is that?" Jack looked back to the door – the beast was long gone now.

"I don't know. But I'm going to do some testing. For all we know, there could be a giant spider running around Halloween."

"Giant spider…" Jack frowned, and his eyes widened. "The town needs to know immediately! If this thing doesn't know it's from Halloween… Sally! _Autumn! _They're-everybody's in danger!" He dashed back to town, and the siren soon roared through the afternoon air.


	11. Chapter 11

_I'm sooooooorry I never get anything on thse stories done, I've only just gotten back into writing mode and I don't know how long it will last Thank you for your patience and enjoy!_

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Chapter 11: Alarm

"What's that?' Autumn had looked up at the sound of the siren, and Trigger frowned.

"It's an alarm," he responded, "something must be wrong. C'mon, Jack'll be there." Autumn nodded reluctantly, pulling her hood back over her head. She had deemed it dry enough to wear again a few minutes before, and looked like a purple ghost with all of her face obscured except – as what seemed to be the norm – her eyes. The two ran towards the town, and before long they had found the approaching crowd and immersed themselves in it, monsters of all kinds flooding into the town hall.

Trigger felt Autumn squeeze his hand, and he glanced back to see her looking around and shaking slightly.

'Trigger…" she whispered, voice tinged with alarm.

"Shush," he responded as they took their seats in the middle, "don't call attention to yourself just yet." She nodded, and looked up, biting her lip as Jack Skellington stepped onto the podium.

"Listen, everyone," he began, "I have important news for all of you. We have a new problem coming, and I fear there may be trouble for Halloween." The room filled with whispers until he cleared his – cleared his throat? – and began again. "There are two creatures running amok around the town, and they could be very dangerous. The first I have seen with my own eyes – a great orange creature covered in matted hair, with six large black eyes and eight long, brown legs that grow vines all over. This is the one we need to worry less about, because from what I have been told it will not attack without reason. "They all sighed with relief. "Now, the bad news." They all tensed up. "The other creature," he continued, "is it partner, and we don't know what to look for. All I know is that its flesh is whiter that a spider's thread," they all nodded, "and it has stringy hair the color of tar, and large eyes that see everything. And it's smart." There were more whispers and hushed tones. "Now now, we just need to be more careful, that's all. Keep your eye out, and report any sightings immediately, and we should be able to handle it."

Autumn looked at Trigger, worry brimming in her eyes. "Monster?" She whispered. "I mean, a real monster, that hurts people?"

"Beats me," Trigger whispered back. "Look, he's waving both his hands. That means everyone's dismissed. Wait a moment." She nodded as everyone filed out, leaving them alone with the skeleton king. "Jack?"

Jack looked up as Trigger stood and walked over. "Ah, Trigger, the most loyal of the trick-or-treaters. How have you been?" He smiled at the boy, who nodded.

"Pretty good. Actually… there's somebody who wanted to talk to you." He turned to look at Autumn, who was peeking behind the bench. "He's not gonna bite you, come on." She nodded, and slowly stepped out and walked over, hands holding her hood over her face. Jack bent down, and gently took her hands from her face.

"Now, no reason to be shy, little ghoul. Let me get a look at you." She reluctantly let him pull her hood back enough for him to see her eyes, wide and scared. Jack looked at her for a moment, and a perplexed look crossed his face. "And what are you, if I may ask? A ghost?"

"No," she shook her head, and his eye sockets widened, "I'm Autumn."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: King and Vagabond

She was impossibly tiny compared to him – Jack could hardly believe human children came in so small a size, especially with such big hands and a bigger head on a thin body that shouldn't have been able to hold itself up, hidden by her baggy and old hand-me-down clothes. Her hair was tangled and untamed, her eyes wide as saucers behind the shaggy curtains of black knots. Jack knelt further to the ground, until he felt his kneecap touch the floor, but still she dwarfed him by half of a foot.

"So _you're _Autumn," he said as he felt a smile grow in his face, and after a moment she shyly smiled back. "You had us all worried, little one." She looked at the ground, hands clasped behind her back.

"Sorry," she said, "I was scared to go talk to anyone because you all seemed so scary."

"We _are _scary," He said, and she looked back up, "that's our job."

"But you're not mean," Autumn smiled again, "That's what I was scared about. ….Why were you looking for me?"

"Why don't we sit down?" He gestured to a bench, and she nodded, quickly sitting down and scooting over to give him space. "Trigger, could you please find Sally? I think she went to the gates to look again." The boy nodded, and ran off. Jack returned his attention to Autumn, who was lightly pulling on a chunk of her hair, and sat down next to her. "Now," he said, "do you remember how you got here?"

"Not really…" Autumn shook her head, "I just remember running and…falling, I guess. And when I stopped falling, I was in the graveyard." She looked down again, half-kicking the air with her ratty sneakers. "And after that I tried to come here, but all the monsters scared me… and I thought I was in trouble, so I sorta wandered around to find someplace safe." She looked at him. "You're not gonna hurt me though, are you?"

"No, not at all," he rubbed the top of her head, and she let out the tiniest of giggles at the gesture, "I was hoping I could find you before something else could. You see, while Halloween is actually full of nice people, there are other things out in the forest and between the holiday worlds that aren't as nice. Do you understand?" Autumn nodded, eyes wide.

"Like the big orange thing and the white thing with black hair you were talking about?" He nodded, and she folded her arms together. "They're not nice?"

"Well, I don't know," he said, "we haven't found them yet." She nodded. "The orange one, though… it seemed very angry when I did see it, so be careful." She nodded again, her hair not moving from her face when she did.

He frowned – he could barely see her face behind the curtains of black littered with orange and brown leaves. She tilted her head to the side slightly at his expression.

"What's wrong?"

"Why do you hide behind all this hair?" He reached out to push some to the side, but she pulled back a bit, looking down.

"No," she whispered, "…no, please. People don't like looking at me. I'm… I don't know, I scare grown-ups. They don't like the way I look. I always scare them off when they look at me…" Her hands had gone to the hoodie again, and pulled the purple fabric over her eyes. Jack bent over so he was at eye-level with her, and she let one eye peek out from between her fingers.

"I'm the scariest creature in the world," he said with a smile, "and we're still getting along, right?" She nodded, and quietly let her hands down. He straightened up again as she pulled her hood back down, and she squeezed her eyes shut as he pushed her messy hair to the sides, getting a proper look at her face for the first time.

It wasn't just her hands – the skin on her face was a shade paler than even his bones, with none of the natural tint that most humans got from blood and muscle in their bodies – just paper-white framed by a jungle of black. The only exceptions were two large circles, one around and over each eyelid –– as if she'd gotten too enthusiastic about applying eye shadow– that came up to the bottom of her brow and were both the darkest black, fading into white as they got further from the center of her eyelids. Her brows were thick and seemed to have a permanent arching shape towards the outer ends of her face, thickest where they came to a point and thinnest at the ends. She opened her eyes again, and he could see just how eerily large they were in comparison to the rest of her face – and, as he'd thought he'd observed earlier, she had no pupils.

"See?" she murmured after a moment of his staring at her odd-looking visage, pulling her hood back up, "I'm not… normal." He gently pushed it back down, and she looked up at him in confusion, brow knitting at the sight of a smile on his face.

"Well now," he said, rubbing her head again, "aren't you an interesting one?" He stood, and held his hand out as he heard the door open behind them. "I think you'll fit in just fine." He glanced back at the door, and smiled when he saw Sally and Trigger. "Ah, Sally! Come meet Autumn!"


	13. Chapter 13

_I live! Sorry this one's a bit short, this perspective is hard to write. ALSO: this one right here *points at the spider-thing* needs a name. Suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks and happy reading!_

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Chapter 13: Hunting

_Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch… _

The forest was silent in fear as the large creature stomped through, multiple pairs of eyes flitting about in search of the creature's target. Its mouth was slightly open to make that soft and deadly sound, a chant of the prowling hunter, a death knell for any who opposed it. Long, hairy legs barely made a sound against the forest floor, save the rustle of leaves caught in tiny hooks circling the bottom of each orange and fuzz-covered appendage like roots. The leaves fell when each leg was partially in the air, and were stomped on by legs towards the hindmost with uncomfortable crunching.

Nothing dared approach it. Good. It – he, the creature was male – didn't want to deal with distractions. He was concerned only with his target – his other half, his sibling, his counterpart. Tiny shreds of memories he needed to identify her darted across his mind's eyes – the ghostly skin that was partially concealed by black fuzz, the tiny fangs, the wail of confusion as that monster-witch took his sibling and put her away from where he could reach, and then chained him. He remembered he'd woken first, and he remembered clinging to his other half and not wanting to let go as she wailed in confusion.

He remembered pain. He remembered the chains, and he remembered gnawing away at them, years of gnawing – how long? How long had he fought for his freedom, half-starved living off of whatever scraps remained of the monster-witch's work, so he could find his sibling again?

_Sibling sibling sibling. _The word itself did not stay in his mind – words held little meaning aside from a select few such as "food" or "punish" – but the idea of another, like and not like him, was always there. _Sibling sibling sibling, _he thought in his mental language of concepts as he stomped, feeling the air shift, trying to find her presence, her scent.

He didn't want to go back to that town, unless she was there. He didn't want to see more monster-witches and meatless men and creatures that used the meaningless language of words. He approached the edge of the forest, towards the graveyard, hoping for some carcass to devour.

It was all mud – good. His leg-roots soaked up bits from the mud for strength, as if remembering the pumpkin he'd come from – the pumpkin they'd come from. His sibling's scent wafted through the air, faint and old, and he followed. It was getting stronger – he'd have to enter the town then. He crawled onto the fence, and began the call again. Perhaps she'd hear it, and come back.

_Ch-ch-ch…_

_Sibling._


	14. Chapter 14

_Yes, I know, Banhees are usually green. But then, this is a world where a boy can eat whole birds. Also, short chapter is short._

_Happy reading!_

* * *

Chapter 14: Banshee

"A what?" Autumn frowned at Sally, a quizzical look far different from the sad expression she usually had. Sally had scooped her up immediately upon seeing Autumn and was carrying her in a sitting-up position – the girl was shockingly light – to Jack's house, Jack and Trigger ahead of them.

"A banshee," Sally repeated, pulling a leaf from her hair, "is a kind of ghoul that is said to use a song to alert that somebody is dying." She smiled, but Autumn merely furrowed her brow more.

"I…I look like a singing Grim Reaper?" Jack heard that tidbit, and laughed, reaching back and patting the girl's head. Sally chuckled as well.

"Not right now, no," Sally said, "but you're pale enough to pass off as one, and the other Halloween citizens will feel more comfortable if you look like one of them. Which you do." Autumn wrinkled her nose a bit at the odd compliment, but nodded. "So, the plan is to get you all cleaned up and in some proper clothes, and then try to figure out where Maretta hid the door to your world."

"How long will it take to look?" Autumn was looking at Sally's hair, and after a nod from Sally began to tie it in thin braids that kept unwinding when she moved on to the next one and forgot to tie them off. She didn't notice the tall tower they were approaching, framed by a black and spidery fence.

"Well, we don't know," Sally said, stepping up the stairs as Jack held the door open for her, "it could take as much as a few weeks." Autumn glanced up, and dropped the half-braid he'd had in her hands as she took in her surroundings – tall stairs and cobweb decorations and books and potions and small pumpkins and a cauldron and a bowl of candy on a black polished table at the center of the spiral staircase. Sally set her down and smiled at Jack as Autumn took a step forward, eyes flitting back and forth to take in everything about the magnificently spooky abode.

"You have a great house, Mr. Jack…" Autumn said, slowly approaching the stairs, her fingers tracing the pattern in the wire support for the banister – spider webs and pumpkin vines that shifted into vertical stripes and zigzags as they went further up. She looked at the bowl of candy for a moment, then glanced at Jack, who nodded at her. She smiled, and peered in, having to stand on her toes – the table was as tall as she was – and plucked a blue and black taffy wrapped in wax paper from the top and carefully unwrapped it. She chewed on it thoughtfully as she followed Jack and Sally up the stairs.

"Zero! We have a guest!" Autumn's face brightened as the sound of barking filled the room, and she giggled as the Skellington's ghostly dog flew over and happily sniffed her face.

"Hi, boy…" Zero barked again, and flew to Jack's side as he returned to a desk that had a bunch of papers on it.

"This way, Autumn," Sally said, "we need to get you cleaned up. Oh," she lifted the threadbare cat doll from a nearby table, "isn't this yours?"

"Molly!"


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Voice

"What's wrong, Mr. Jack?" Jack looked down at the child, who was looking back up with a quizzical expression, and smiled, lifting her up – "Whoa!" – and setting her down on the chair next to his and gesturing to her journal, which sat open on the desk. She turned to face it, setting Molly on the desk next to it, and nodded. "My journal…Were to trying to find me with it?" She was sitting on her knees, and leaned forward, flipping to the last written page. "I don't really write a lot in it…"

"I actually had a few questions about it, if you don't mind?" Autumn nodded again, and watched his hand as he turned to the first page that had really been bothering him. He pointed to the first line he'd carefully underlined, and while she scrunched her brow – no doubt because he'd written in it – but she didn't get angry, instead tracing a finger over the spider-web thin lines of his handwriting. He started asking questions – how she understood spiders, where Graywood was, who Rosita was, etc.

"Um, okay…" Autumn tugged lightly on the small braid Sally had woven from a few thin bunches of her cleaned and brushed hair, "That's a lot…"

"You don't have to answer them all at once," he smiled, pushing the braid out of her face and smiling at the tiny bat clip Sally had added, "take your time." Autumn nodded, and looked down, scrunching her brow again and biting her lip.

"Okay… Graywood is the village I live in… in the people world. I never really left it before now… I guess the only "where" I can put on it is next to the forest that brought me here. It's pretty small, so getting to the forest was easy." Jack nodded, and scribbled down in the little notepad he held. "And Rosita," she smiled, "is… my friend. She's not scared of me, like the other kids…" she shook her head suddenly, "but she's kinda sick right now. She coughs and stays in bed a lot… I hope she's okay." She bit her lip again. "I miss her…"

"I know," Jack patted the top of her head, "it's strange being so far away from home, isn't it?" Autumn frowned at the word "home", but nodded, looking back at the book. "Now," he took the hint that she didn't want to talk about it, "what about spiders?"

"I like spiders," she smiled, "they like me. I just… hear them, talking, like you are. I don't know why I can… huh?" She suddenly looked up. "Hello?"

"Autumn, there's nobody else here," Jack frowned, but Autumn scrunched her eyebrows further together and jumped off of the chair.

"Hello? … Mister Jack, somebody's calling me."

"What?" Jack stood up. "I don't hear anything, Autumn." Autumn didn't respond, and in the quiet he could barely make out a soft, faint, eerie noise – _ch-ch-ch-ch, ch-ch-ch…_

"Yeah," Autumn responded, "I can hear you. Who are you?" _Ch-ch-ch… _"You're looking for me?" Autumn tilted her head to one side. "Why? …Hello?" Everything fell quiet, and Autumn looked at Jack. "Mister Jack, what was that?"

"I don't know," Jack responded, looking around in confusion, "I've never heard that particular noise befo-"

The same noise sounded, but loud and frantic, from a good distance away. Autumn ran over to Jack and grabbed his pant leg.

"Mister Jack! I heard him! He's calling for help!" Her eyes were wide from panic. "I have to help him!" She suddenly grabbed Molly, and dashed down the stairs. "I'll be right back!"

"Autumn!" He ran after her as she bolted out the door, and towards the source of the frantic noises – straight for Oogie's lair. "Autumn! Stop!"


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Stew

_Something isn't right, _Trigger thought as he watched the other three children drag in the largest orange spider he'd ever seen. It was tied by its feet and chattering loudly and frantically, writing in the iron shackles while its four eyes darted around. He couldn't speak spider, but any fool could recognize a cry for help when they heard one – and it was a requirement for a spook to recognize fear when they saw it.

"Just you wait!" Shock chuckled as the three pushed it into a cage. "Mr. Oogie Boogie's going to be so pleased!"

"Pleased with what? And what smells like pumpkins?" Olivia looked up from her book, and frowned. "That is one huge spider."

"The biggest spider ever!" Lock added, sealing the door. The three struggled to lift it. "The best batch ever!"

"Snake-and-spider stew," Trigger murmured. "Guys, this is a really bad idea. Jack warned us about this thing in town today – it's angry, it's looking for-" but before he could finish it was going down the chute. Trigger dashed, imagination flashing up every monstrosity it could call "sibling" in an instant, and grabbed a loose chain attached to the cage.

He caught it in the nick of time, and steadied himself when he was pulled a bit forward.

"What are you doing, Trigger? You like snakes, not spiders."

"Listen, guys, this thing has a sister, a really nasty sister, and she's – it's been calling her, and the last thing I want is to make something smart enough to hide in plain sight from finding us. We need to get this thing out of here, stat."

"Agreed," Olivia added, looking at the spider as Trigger pulled it back up the chute, "But put it somewhere far away from here, so the sister doesn't-"

"WHERE'S MY DINNER?!" Trigger grabbed the cage when he jumped, along with everyone else. "I'M STARVING DOWN HERE YOU BRATS!"

"It's coming!" Trigger lamely called down, still holding the cage. "Okay, we need to find something to replace this, and fast. Lock, take this cage to Jack, he'll figure out what to do about the sister. Shock, you and Barrel can go capture some poor giant spider – a _real _one – for Oogie, Olivia will help me stall- guys?" He turned to face the other three, all frozen and pale.

"Shh!" Barrel hissed. "Listen!"

_Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…_

"Guys, that's just the spide-"

_Creeeeeeeeaaaaaak... clang-clang-clang…_

"It's climbing up the pipes," Shock whispered, "it's the big sister. She's here." The orange spider was chattering like crazy, and the thing approaching was responding. Then, something even more terrifying – the worst thing they could have imagined hearing – sounded through the air, behind the thing.

"Come back! What are you doing?!"

"It's Jack!" The three younger ones all looked at Trigger. "Hide it!"

"Hide it? Hide it how- Ah!" The trick-or-treaters all stepped forward, and a second later his voice – and the spider's chattering – disappeared down the chute.

"Idiots!" Olivia glared. "Now whatever's coming really will kill you!" All four stopped at the sound of something above them.

"It's on the roof," Shock whispered. The three huddled together.

"This is it for us!"

"We're dead!"

_CRASH!_

All three stared at the ghostly-pale, black-haired, orange-eyed figure, no larger than a young child and glaring daggers at them, Jack quickly landing behind her.

Olivia gaped. "Autumn?!"


End file.
